Source: From DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY edited by William S. Powell. Copyright (c) 1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

Clarence Hamilton Poe (10 Jan. 1881-8 Oct. 1964), editor, publisher, and
author, was born on his father's small cotton farm near the town of
Gulf, Chatham County, the only son of William Baxter
(1839-1907) and Susan Dismukes Poe (1846-1911).
Prominent in the maternal ancestry was Augustine Shepperd
(1792-1864), of Surry and Forsyth counties, who served nine
terms in Congress between 1827 and 1851, in the later years as a
Whig.

What little formal education Poe received was chiefly in a
one-room country school known as Rocky Branch School, which was in
operation three to four months of each year, plus one year of high
school in Greensboro. However, he read eagerly and was encouraged
by his mother, a former teacher, to develop his talent for writing.
At age sixteen he went to Raleigh to work as associate editor for
the Progressive Farmer, a weekly paper that had been
founded in Winston in 1886 by Colonel Leonidas Lafayette Polk. Poe
became editor on 4 July 1899. In 1903 he purchased the paper and
together with Dr. B. W. Kilgore, Josiah William Bailey, Dr. C. W.
Burkett, and T. B. Parker organized the Agricultural Publishing
Company, the name of which was later changed to the Progressive
Farmer Company. Poe served as president from the firm's inception
until January 1954, after which he served as senior editor and
board chairman until his death. The headquarters of the company
were moved to Birmingham, Ala., in 1911, but Poe continued to
direct its operations from his Raleigh office. Between 1903 and
1930, fourteen other farm papers were bought or merged into
Progressive Farmer; its circulation expanded from 5,000 to
1,400,000, and Progressive Farmer became the dominant farm
publication in the South and one of the strongest in the United
States.

Poe studied agricultural and social conditions abroad on trips
to Europe in 1908 and 1912 and on a trip around the world in
1910–11. He was the author of Cotton: Its Cultivation,
Marketing and Manufacture, with C. W. Burkett (1906); A
Southerner in Europe (1908); Where Half the World Is Waking
Up (1912); Life and Speeches of Charles B. Aycock, with
R. D. W. Connor (1912); How Farmers Cooperate and Double
Profits (1915); True Tales of the South at War (1961);
and My First Eighty Years (1963).

In the field of agriculture he was a member of the State Board
of Agriculture (1913-31), Advisory Council of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (1933), and National Commission on Farm
Tenancy (1934); president of the State Farmers' Convention
(1919-20), State Dairymen's Association (1929-30),
North Carolina Forestry Foundation (1935-40), National
Agricultural Conference (1936), and American Country Life
Association (1940-41); and master of the North Carolina State
Grange (1929-30). In 1936-45 he represented American
agriculture on the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Poe
received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Future
Farmers of America (1911), North Carolina State College (1935),
Southern Agricultural Workers (1942), North Carolina State Grange
(1947), National 4-H Congress (1951), American Association of
Agricultural College Editors (1952), and North Carolina Farm Bureau
(1955). In 1949 he was granted honorary membership in Alpha Zeta,
the national agricultural fraternity; in 1964 he received the Award
of National Convocation of the Church in Town and Country; and in
1966 he was named to the North Carolina Agricultural Hall of
Fame.

In the field of education, he was a trustee of Wake Forest
College (1915-47); chairman, executive committee of the board
of trustees, North Carolina State College of Agriculture and
Engineering (1916-31); member, executive committee, and
chairman, Agriculture Committee, Trustees of the Consolidated
University of North Carolina (1931-55); and member, board of
advisers, Institute of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
(1927-32). He also served as a member of the Raleigh School
Board. He received honorary degrees from Wake Forest College
(doctor of literature, 1914); The University of North Carolina
(doctor of laws, 1928); Washington College (Maryland) (doctor of
laws, 1929); Clemson Agricultural College (doctor of science,
1937), and North Carolina State College (doctor of agricultural
education, 1951).

The great variety of his interests is indicated by other
numerous activities and awards. He was president of the State Press
Association (1913-14), North Carolina Conference for Social
Service (1913-15), and State Literary and Historical Association (1914-15). In 1925–64 he
was an elector of the Hall of Fame; in 1926-60, director of
the North Carolina State Art Society (also part-time chairman of
its executive committee); and in 1933-35, head of the North
Carolina Rural Electrification Authority. He was a member of the
Raleigh Board of Managers of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company
(1924-33), Commission to Draft a Revision of the State
Constitution (1931-32), State Planning Board (1935), National
Advisory Committee of National Youth Administration
(1935-43), National Committee on Hospital Care
(1944-46), North Carolina Hospital and Medical Care
Commission (1944-55 [vice-chairman, 1945-55]),
Jackson-Johnson-Polk Monument Commission (1947-48),
Commission on Health Needs of the Nation (1951-52),
International Development Advisory Board (known as the Rockefeller
Commission, 1951-55), State Art Commission (1951-61),
and State Commission on Racial Segregation in the Schools
(1954-55). In addition, he was chairman of the State
Committee that secured ratification of five constitutional
amendments (1936), National Advisory Committee on Rural
Electrification (1936), and Southern Governors' Campaign for
Balanced Prosperity in the South (1940-43).

In World War I he was a member of the Executive Committee of
State Food and Fuel Administration and the War Savings Committee.
In World War II he was a member of the North Carolina Council of
National Defense, State Council of Civilian Defense, and National
Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, as well as
chairman of Executive Committee of the North Carolina Farm Manpower
Commission.

Poe twice won the Patterson Cup Award for best North Carolina
book of the year (1909, 1912). He was named Citizen of the Year by
the North Carolina Citizens' Association (1955). Other honors
included the Distinguished Service Award from The University of
North Carolina School of Medicine (1957) and from the National
Council of Churches of Christ (1964), the World Peace Award from
the American Freedom Association (1962), and the North Carolina
Award for Distinguished Public Service (1964).

Goldsboro editor Henry Belk said: "If one were asked to name the
North Carolinian who has made the greatest contribution to progress
and enlightenment, to education and health and improved living,
most would name Dr. Poe." Similarly, Virginius Dabney, Richmond,
Va., editor, observed: "If a list were drawn up of the half-dozen
men who have done most for the South since 1900, it would have to
include Dr. Clarence Poe."

For years Poe conducted extensive dairy, tobacco, cotton, and
poultry production operations on his 800-acre Longview Farm. He
also served as president (1937-55) and board chairman
(1938-64) of Longview Gardens, Inc., a suburban real estate
firm that sold residential lots and built and operated a
neighborhood shopping center. Poe's leisure activities included
horseback riding, landscaping, and gardening. He held membership in
the First Baptist Church, Raleigh Rotary Club, Watauga Club
(longtime president), and Sandwich Club.

He married, in Raleigh on 29 May 1912, Alice Varina, daughter of
Charles B. Aycock, former governor of North Carolina
(1901-5). They had three children: Charles Aycock, Raleigh
attorney; William D., edition editor of the Progressive
Farmer (d. 1958); and Jean Shepperd, who married Gordon Smith,
Jr. Clarence Poe had one sister, Daisy Poe Moore, of Gulf. He died
in Raleigh at age eighty-three, still writing his column for the
Progressive Farmer and working on his eighth book.